Newsletter Design by Jana Waite, School of Integrative Biology 2002 Department of Entomology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Contents Message from the Head ..................................................................... 4 Barkers Endow Insect Toxicology Chair ............................................. 5 Faculty ............................................................................................. 6 Awards and Recognition ...................................................................13 In Search of Tibetan Bumble Bees .....................................................15 For the Love of Insects .....................................................................16 Staff ................................................................................................17 Affiliates and Other Academics .........................................................18 Bee and Beekeeping Short Course .....................................................23 Illinois Entomologists in the News ....................................................24 Colloquium Speakers in 2001 and 2002 .............................................26 Graduate Students ............................................................................28 Recent Graduates .............................................................................37 Entomology Graduate Student Association ........................................38 Insect Expo ......................................................................................39 18th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival................................................40 19th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival................................................42 Midwest Institute for Biological Control............................................44 2002 Distinguished Alumni Award ....................................................45 Alumni ............................................................................................46 Obituary ..........................................................................................52 Donors to Entomology, 2001-2002 ....................................................53 Cover photo of exotic soybean aphid by Dave Voegtlin, Illinois Natural History Survey Newsletter design by Jana Waite, School of Integrative Biology 2002 Department of Entomology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Entomology Newsletter-3 Message from the Head May Berenbaum OUR goal of returning to an annual alumni academic year. We also hired an outstanding newsletter slipped by the wayside as 2001 faculty member in the relatively new field of raced by before I could wrestle it to the invasion biology—specifically, Andrew ground. Thus, this newsletter will cover Suarez, former master’s student with Scott about 22 months (all at no additional cost!). Robinson at UIUC who went on for doctoral As always, the first topic of concern is and postdoctoral work within the University reorganization, even 5 years after the fact. of California system. We’re happy to bring This was a transition year, in which the him back to his Midwest roots (his family is entomology rubric for courses was co-listed from Chicago). Andy’s appointment is split with the IB rubric; next year we’ll all have between Entomology and Animal Biology, to learn new numbers, a daunting prospect to accommodate his interests that extend in to those of us who still are a little fuzzy on various directions through trophic webs. the old ones. It’s also our first year without an entomology option—the College informed The annual joint meeting of the Society for us that no undergraduate options would be the Study of Evolution and the Society of permitted within the new integrative biology Systematic Biology was held for the first major. In my view, this is a spectacularly time here. The local arrangements commit- bad idea; the undergraduate option costs tee for the Evolution 2002 meeting consisted virtually nothing to run and it provided us almost entirely of Entomology faculty and close contact with a handful (admittedly affiliates—cochairs May Berenbaum and never very many) of extraordinary under- Stewart Berlocher, along with department graduates, many of whom went on to achieve members Jim Whitfield and Sydney Cameron, all kinds of distinction (including a affiliate Kevin Johnson, and Ken Paige and Churchill Fellowship and Entomological Stephen Downie (who have both collabo- Society of America awards). It seems to me rated with Entomology faculty). In case any- that cutting the options takes choice and one missed the point, the logo for the meeting, diversity away from the students—the two not inappropriately, was the western corn things that land grant universities are all earworm, Diabrotica virgifera, on a soybean about. I’m determined, however, to explore leaf, illustrating evolution in action (years of routes for recreating, redesigning, and/or rotating corn and soybeans have apparently reinstituting an entomology undergraduate selected for corn rootworms that oviposit in program on campus for the few enterprising soybean fields). In connection with the souls who feel that the best undergraduate meeting, Stewart organized a splendid education in biology comes with six legs. display highlighting Illinois contributions to the study of evolution—including Mazon Always a consideration for a small depart- Creek fossils (with Karlene Ramsdell’s ment is staffing, and, economic doldrums help) and Darwin’s correspondence with notwithstanding, 2001-2002 were growth Benjamin Walsh, first State Entomologist of years for us. We were extremely fortunate to Illinois. receive a $1.25 million gift from our gener- ous alumnus Roy Barker and his wife Mary We look forward to seeing alumni at the Lou—two very remarkable people!— to annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale and we endow the Kearns, Metcalf and Flint Chair look forward to the challenges that 2003 in Insect Toxicology. A selection committee will bring (including that of getting the was appointed to identify candidates and newsletter back to an annual schedule!). campus visits will take place during this Entomology Newsletter-4 Barkers Endow Insect Toxicology Chair ROY J. and Mary Lou Criss Barker, of program in chemistry at Tucson, AZ, established the “C.W. Kearns, Illinois. Denied admission to C.L. Metcalf, and W.P. Flint Endowed Chair that program, he was encour- in Insect Toxicology” in September 2001. aged by C.W. Kearns, a This gift will support an endowed faculty pioneer in the field of insect position in the Department. A search com- toxicology at Illinois, to take mittee has been established to seek excellent graduate chemistry courses candidates for this chair. and major in entomology. A grant to study metabolism of Roy J. Barker (Ph.D. Entomology 1953) DDT in house flies funded grew up on a Missouri farm plagued with Barker’s Ph.D. thesis. He fleas, flies, armyworms, and grasshoppers. explored biological magnifica- An entomology 4-H Club introduced him to tion of DDT by earthworms the book Destructive and Useful Insects by and says it “established my Roy Barker C.L. Metcalf and W.P. Flint, professors of reputation in the booming entomology at the University of Illinois. insecticide industry as a trouble maker.” He Barker attended the University of Missouri enjoyed a career in industry as well as in on a Sears-Roebuck Scholarship ($15 a basic research. In retirement, Barker has month) and, after serving in World War II as been a civil air patrol pilot, a Silver Beaver an army cannoneer, graduated in agricul- Scoutmaster, and a volunteer naturalist with tural chemistry. He applied to the graduate the U.S. Forest Service. Mary Lou Criss Barker earned a B.S. in home economics from Madison College (VA) in 1953 and an M.S. in deaf education from Gallaudet College (Washington, DC) in 1964. She taught deaf students in Vir- ginia, Arizona, and California. She also taught first and second graders in Tucson public schools and began playing the organ during her teaching career. She is still playing for church services in her retire- ment. Several projects, including working with school children, make retirement as busy as “working.” The Barkers believe that Entomology is well situated to take advantage of expertise in chemistry, natural history, and biology to give the world safer and more effective insect pest management. The Department and the University are truly fortunate to have such loyal alumni and friends. May Berenbaum and Roy Barker at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson, March 2002. Entomology Newsletter-5 Faculty May Berenbaum to mountains and cross-country skiing) and once in October 2001, to give a talk at the annual meeting of the Entomological MY professional life seems to be dictated by Society of Canada (and introduce our alliteration—coevolution as the central midwestern daughter to bodies of water theme, with an emphasis on caterpillars and more breathtaking than the Saline Ditch). coumarins. Along those lines, among the Perhaps the most memorable professional ongoing projects in the lab are examinations trip was the least alliterative one—spring of Canadian swallowtail metabolism of break 2002 took us to Las Vegas, Nevada, coumarins by Weimin Li, of coumarin- where, at the invitation of Dr. Steve Roberts, regulated gene expression in Papilio species I gave the Juanita Greer White annual by Becca Petersen and Cindy McDonnell lecture in biology and where, afterwards, (using, of course, CAT-reporter constructs), Richard and Hannah and I could see the of corn earworm detoxification of plant various and very sundry sights, including, allelochemicals by Xianchun Li, of carote- among others,